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The “Clovis First” model has guided
anthropological inquiries into the peopling of the New World since the early 20th
century. However, more recent discoveries of equally ancient, and possibly
earlier, sites in coastal and insular settings have called this paradigm into
question. This has stimulated the formation of new hypotheses pertaining to the
possibility of multiple migrations taking place during different time periods
and involving both terrestrial and sea-borne routes of travel. The foundation
of these proposed migrations draws upon recently developed geographic and chronological
evidence of early coastal population expansions originating from the maritime
regions of the Russian Far East and reaching across the Aleutian Islands to the
Southern California Coast.
With the inundation of North Pacific coastlines
by sea-level rise during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene transition the
overwhelming body of empirical evidence of early maritime populations has been
literally washed away. Yet, from both a theoretical and empirical perspective
there are still multiple lines of data that can be brought to bear to explore
these ideas. As emerging evidence has proven, early coastal and insular sites
that possess the potential to enlighten these questions can still be found.
Further, many empirical lines of evidence, and innovative methodologies, are
now available that may permit the development of new insights. This paper
explores, from a theoretical and anthropological perspective, the multitude of
ecological, geographic, climatic, biological, social and technological issues
that must be addressed if we are to seriously investigate the feasibility of
sustainable maritime population expansions, possibly through the use of
seaworthy watercraft, into previously uninhabited coastal and insular locations
across the north Pacific Rim.
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